Trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one company from the goods or services of other companies.
From the very beginning, when you don’t even have a tangible product or service, you already have a name in mind and even a logo you draw on your notebook. It doesn’t matter if is the final name and logo but that is when your IP strategy begins and when your brand is born.
Hence the importance of the registration of your trademark at the earliest stage of your business: to protect the idea that you probably had in mind when you were still in college or working your 9 to 5 job for the past 10 years.
Most common forms and types of trademarks:
- Name (textual element)
- Logo (graphical element)
- Combined (text + logo)It can also include:
- Symbols (Lego brick)
- Sounds (MGM lion roar or the voice of the late Professor Stephen Hawking),
- Colours (purple of Milka chocolate)
- Slogans, (Nike’s ‘Just Do it’)
- Shapes of products or packaging (Toblerone)
- Internet domain names
- Patterns, (Pattern used on Louis Vuitton’s distinctive brown leather bags)
